Hey, how’s that 114th Congress going?

By Dan Brooks in Tea Party 0 Comment
John Boehner had your electoral mandate, but n-words came over with 40s and blunts...

John Boehner had your killa tape, but then n-words came over with 40s and blunts…

Remember the 113th Congress, whose purpose was to thwart President Obama’s legislative agenda so that Republicans could retake the Senate and get stuff done in the 114th? It tuns out single-party control only works when the GOP is a single party. Over at the Times, Neil Irwin suggests that this week will tell us whether Boehner and McConnell can manage the tea party wing of their caucus, and things aren’t looking good. He points out that the House only avoided a DHS shutdown earlier this month by passing a stopgap bill at the last minute with Democratic votes. Meanwhile, Pelosi and Boehner agreed on a doc fix for Medicare but may not bring their parties along. And a bill to fight human trafficking has been derailed by a redundant anti-abortion amendment, which has in turn left nominated Attorney General Loretta Lynch with the longest wait for confirmation in US history. So next on the list is a federal budget.

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This Bubble Tape commercial prefigures modern advertising

By Dan Brooks in advertising 5 Comments

From the depths of his fatherhood, Ben al-Fowlkes sent me this Bubble Tape commercial of the early 90s—right at the intersection of Max Headroom and MTV. The Baby Boomers had recently assumed control of broadcast media, but they retained their identity as the first generation in history to see through institutional authority. They still didn’t buy what the man was selling, but their lives had progressed to the point where they were selling it. The generation told not to trust anyone over 30 was now in charge of marketing long gum to children. Naturally, they employed the message that most resonated with them: old people are not cool. As the Boomers grew even more hideously aged in the decades that followed, that idea would mutate into “most people are not cool.” The notion that you could be different from most people by buying something would become the central premise of American advertising.

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In giant metaphor, Cruz announces 2016 candidacy at Liberty University

By Dan Brooks in lying 1 Comment
Why shouldn't I be president?

Why shouldn’t I be president?

Ted Cruz has formally entered the 2016 presidential race, announcing his candidacy this morning at Liberty University. And what better analogue for his brand of conservatism than a college founded by a televangelist? As the Telegraph reminds us, Liberty University teaches that the Earth is 6000 years old and notes the “strong possibility that horses, zebras and donkeys are all descended from an original pair of horses that were on Noah’s Ark.” That’s only a possibility, though; we shouldn’t assume anything until we can do more research. Cruz is a Baptist, but he didn’t go to Liberty University. He went to Princeton. That, dear reader, is the senator from Texas in a nutshell.

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A big day at Combat! blog

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized 1 Comment
Thursday (artist's conception)

Thursday (artist’s conception)

I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but all manner of crazy stuff is happening around here. From my flight to Vegas at 5am tomorrow through the novel chapter I’m supposed to finish for Write Club to the power outage in my apartment, it rains and therefore pours. Combat! blog is busier than a one-armed man in a puppet show, so it’s a good thing we’ve got publications in other outlets to amuse you. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has already noted this week’s column about the giant peace sign vandals carved into the hills north of Missoula, inadvertently destroying a unique species of wildflower. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, karaoke at the bowling alley is the social contract in action. You can see off-key dilettantes or the sheer miraculous unlikelihood of the human voice—it’s up to you. I, for one, choose wonder. Not today, though—today I choose nothing but sedulous work, so that I might enjoy deferred fun this weekend. There will be no Combat! blog tomorrow. I’ll be on a plane. But you’ve got nigh on 2,000 words to amuse you over at the Indy, and if that doesn’t interest you, you can always read a little Black Walnut. We’ll be back Monday with more patience and a tan.

GOP issues “moral document” in the form of 10-year budget plan

By Dan Brooks in Politics versus Government 0 Comment
Paul Ryan (R–WI) pretends to think about your birthday present, but you're getting an iTunes card.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R–WI) pretends to think about your birthday present, but you’re getting an iTunes gift card.

If you want to feel superior and depressed at the same time, read this New York Times story on the budget plan House Republicans submitted last week. The good news is that it balances the federal budget by 2025. The bad news is that it does so by assuming $147 billion in additional revenue from the “macroeconomic effect” of the budget itself. It also repeals the Affordable Care Act and the taxes that support it, but still includes $1 trillion in revenue from those taxes. Finally, it counts $1 trillion in savings from unspecified cuts to social welfare programs. Don’t worry, though: there’s a $40 billion increase in defense spending next year, couched as “emergency war spending” so as not to violate the 2011 Budget Control Act. We’ll find the war later. As Rep. Rob Woodall (R–GA) of the House Budget Committee put it, “A budget is a moral document; it talks about where your values are.”

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